Universe

Played this game when I was between wives and living in the barracks back in '85 or so. I loved this game, and all my friends had their own Atari 800s and also played. **I** was that only one that had eight disk drives daisy chained. (It may have been seven and a tape drive). Saved me a lot of disk swapping. You could almost FEEL the jealousy.

Wm Leslie - 26/04/2011

@G Baker -- you can contact me at wgmleslie@gmail.com

G Baker - 31/10/2010

I'm playing this on the AtariWin800 Plus emulator on a PC. I'm still looking for the booster, but I decided to try to write the game in C++. I'd like to eventually run it in a normal window, but I'm still learning the Window API (with much difficulty). For now I'm running the game in console mode. I'm shamelessly stealing screenshots from the game in the emulator. I don't have any plans to do anything with my version of the game for now except play it myself and learn to program again. But if I get anything worth sharing eventually I'd like to get approval from the folks who wrote the original to use their material in my version. Not sure this is strictly necessary, legally, but I have a great deal of respect for them and their work that I wouldn't consider sharing anything I do without their consent. I'm including all the credit screens in my version, even if it never leaves my computer.

So if anyone knows how to reach them I'd appreciate some contact info. I noticed Wm Leslie posted here, so maybe he'll check back. Thanks.

Wm Leslie - 08/10/2010

Actually, Universe was written in Valpar International's superb ValFORTH environment.

Bill Volk wrote a really amazing 3D library that really added a lot to the game's look and feel.

jcooper - 06/03/2010

All, I found that if you make a copy of the construction disk or one of the game disks and rename it then it works. the emulator must have to think the disk is formatted as the old atari disks were. I am using the universe 1.3 dump with Atari Win800 version 4 and have been playing this great game for a number of days now.I hope that helps. This is all on a Windows XP system with Atari 800win emulation.

Jerry

mark harper - 11/02/2010

sorry, forgot to add my e-mail addy, it is

univari@aol.com

thanks for any help you can give me!!

Mark Harper - 11/02/2010

has anyone found a fix for the format error when trying to create a player disk? if so, please e-mail me. i loved this game years ago and would really enjoy being able to play it again!! Thanks!!

Bruce G - 11/10/2008

Does anyone have a guide on how to get this game started and working? I can get to the point of creating the player disk initally, and then it keeps saying that it can't format the disk. Any help is appreciated. Bruiser419@yahoo.com. Thanks!

Chris Edgar - 20/07/2008

Apologies for the double-comment.

I should add: In fact, don't even really bother trying to play this game without reading my FAQ, which will be put up shortly. There are some serious and discouraging pitfalls, at least with the disk images out there.

In fact, I truly wonder -- has ANYONE else out there actually been able to play the game fully? I have, for the record, but I have had to pull some tricks, such as occasionally using the FLIGHT disk from version 1.1 for space combat (because the FLIGHT disk for version 1.2 crashes in space combat). I'd be very interested to know, and to compare notes. And I REALLY want to get a hold of version 1.3 disk images, if anyone has them! Please upload them here if you do!

Chris Edgar - 20/07/2008

The sublight problem is caused by playing with SIO patching on. Universe doesn't handle that well in emulation. Turn it off, and use F7 (in Atari800Win, or whatever function in your emulator of choice) to speed up the whole emulation, rather than just the disk access, to get through disk loading times. Do it in short bursts, though, because you don't want game time to race by once it's loaded.

Ben G - 29/03/2008

My brothers and I used to play this game back when it came out. We loved it, but the disks couldn't take all the swapping and eventually some went bad on us.

Like Chad, I've managed to get the emulator all the way to the sublight drive menu. However I can actually do a planet scan and see the objects. But there the interface freezes and I cannot select objects or manually type in coordinates. What a shame. Kinda stuck without sublight manuevers.

Also, I'm not sure how to set up the game so it knows the player disk is in drive 2.

Anyone else have a solution for this? Thanks!

Chad Moody - 18/01/2007

Great game! I played this when I was 9 or 10.

I've downloaded the files and played a bit but the screen always goes BLACK when I try to access the sublight drive. E-mail me if you can help. I'd love to play this fully again.

Pete Wood - 21/11/2006

I Live in England and in 1984 when first released, this game would have cost £60! ($108 at todays rates) which was 2 weeks wages!!!Have downloaded the rulkes and am preparing to play then ONE atari game i always wanted!

Chris Edgar - 02/09/2006

This is truly a great game, the likes of which have not since been seen. The main problem is getting over the learning curve and figuring out how to get a good game going without running out of fuel, provisions, money, etc. I'm working on a FAQ right now to make it smoother for others, and it'll be posted around the internet soon. So if you see this and are interested, search the internet for my name, universe and omnitrend, and you may run into it!

Marcos Olivares - 02/09/2005

I search 11 years! for this game, i remember me reading an ANALOG issue where it was reviewed, i was amazaed, I love this game. No game until now reach the level of complex space simulation, if you are a space adventurer THIS is your game, BUT READ the manual, is the key to all operations, god luck.